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Sikh separatist, targeted once for assassination, says India still trying to kill him
Sikh activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun stands for a photograph in New York City on Oct. 25.
Jeenah Moon for NPR
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Jeenah Moon for NPR
It is a phone call Gurpatwant Singh Pannun remembers well. It was June 17, 2023. After playing phone tag for a day, he and his close aide in Canada finally managed to connect.
“He told me that he was informed by the Canadian intelligence officials that there is a serious threat to his life and he might be killed,” Pannun recalled.
On that call, his aide, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, said that assassins were coming for Pannun as well. The conversation is seared into Pannun’s memory because of what Nijjar told him — but also because it was the last time the two men spoke.
The following day, gunmen shot Nijjar dead in the parking lot of a Sikh temple outside Vancouver, Canada. Canadian authorities have arrested four Indian nationals in connection with the murder.
Nijjar’s warning for Pannun, a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen, also proved prescient. Five months later, the U.S. Justice Department announced it had foiled a plot to assassinate Pannun in New York City. An Indian national was charged in the alleged murder-for-hire scheme, and has pleaded not guilty.
Nijjar’s killing and the purported plan to assassinate Pannun are part of a broader trend around the world in which foreign governments seek to silence critics overseas, including in the United States.
Last week, prosecutors announced charges against a new defendant in Pannun’s case: a former Indian intelligence officer, Vikash Yadav, who allegedly orchestrated the plot.
In the last few years, the Justice Department says it has foiled at least four assassination plots tied to a foreign power. Three of those allegedly link back to Iran, including one targeting Iranian-American activist and journalist Masih Alinejad. The fourth — allegedly targeting Pannun — involves India.
The Indian government denies any involvement in Nijjar’s killing or the purported plot against Pannun.
After the U.S. announced charges in the Pannun case, India set up its own internal inquiry to investigate. Just over a week ago, Indian officials were in Washington for meetings to discuss the case and for both sides to provide an update on their respective investigations.
The State Department called the meetings “productive.” The Indian Embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
“Well-documented” threats from India
Pannun, who was born in India but moved to the U.S. in 1992, told NPR earlier this year that the threat to his life came as no surprise.
“I have been threatened directly by the Indian parliamentarians while sitting in the Indian parliament,” he said. “They have stated that we are going to kill Pannun, even if we have to do a surgical strike. These are well-documented, the statements of the government officials.”
In particular, he points to remarks Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made several times in recent years, including early this July in India’s parliament.
“Today, post 2014, India enters your home and kills you,” Modi said before lawmakers. “Carries out surgical strikes. Carries out air strikes.”
In Pannun’s view, Modi’s threat about how India deals with its perceived enemies is directed at people like him.
Pannun is a Sikh separatist. He is a leading figure in the Khalistan movement, which wants to create an independent Sikh homeland carved out from northern India. He and his organization, Sikhs for Justice, have been spearheading a global referendum for independence.
Khalistan referendum campaign
Pannun is a practicing attorney. At his law office in Queens, boxes of case files and legal books lined the walls. His legal work pays the bills, but much of his time he dedicates to the Khalistan cause.
Sikh activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun stands for a photograph in New York City on Oct. 25.
Jeenah Moon for NPR
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Jeenah Moon for NPR
In his office, he has a green screen set up and camera for the videos he produces and posts online for the campaign.
Behind his desk hung a yellow and blue Khalistan flag. On the wall was a framed picture of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, the holiest site in Sikhism.
Pannun and Nijjar first worked together to document the events surrounding the Indian military’s attack on the temple in 1984, known as Operation Blue Star, and the government’s bloody, nearly decade-long effort to stamp out an armed Sikh insurgency fighting for independence. Thousands were killed.
The two men then shifted their focus to the future and started the Khalistan referendum campaign. The idea is to have Sikhs around the world vote on the question of creating an independent Sikh state. It is an unofficial referendum, and not legally binding.
Pannun has dedicated his life to the campaign. He told his family years ago that his advocacy work would put him at odds with India’s government.
“I have told them very clearly what it would entail and where it can lead,” he said. “That’s why when we are talking about assassination attempts and killings and threats, that doesn’t come as a surprise to us. That doesn’t come as a surprise to the family.”
“Survive to the finish line”
The Modi government in 2020 designated Pannun and Nijjar terrorists for their separatist work.
Pannun rejects the allegation. He said he follows the law, and that his campaign is a peaceful, democratic process.
India’s response, he said, has been to come after him, and that has forced him to look over his shoulder.
“That’s how I’m going to survive to the finish line,” he said.
The alleged assassination plot was not a one-off. He said there are active threats against his life right now. That danger has not forced him to end his separatist work, but it has forced him to take precautions.
At his office, a security team screens visitors with a metal detector. Body guards ferry him to and from work. He had security before the alleged plot, he said, but he’s beefed it up since the case was charged last year.
“Today, what you see is very, very obvious,” he said of his security detail. “This is a message that I’m giving that I’m not out there to do it in suicide mode. I’m going to continue to campaign and I’m going to continue to protect myself.”
Still, the threat on his life has altered, to a degree, how he operates. The interview with NPR was in his office, in part, because it is secure.
“I cannot just abruptly take a car and jump in the car and go anywhere,” he said. “That’s what I have been advised by my security details. That’s where you get killed.”
He’s changed his residence several times since the alleged plot was foiled. He doesn’t go to restaurants much. He said he hasn’t been to the grocery store in years; he gets things delivered instead. And he’s curtailed his on-the-ground campaign appearances.
Boycotting Indian-owned businesses
He remains very active online, though, and regularly posts videos on Instagram. Some of them show pro-Khalistan rallies, while others offer heated challenges against India or Indian officials.
In one from last November, Pannun declares: “Sikhs are facing existential threat under the successive India regimes.”
“We are going to target India,” he adds. “From Air India to made in India, we are going to ground everything.”
Some Indian media outlets interpreted that as a threat in light of the 1985 bombing of an Air India passenger jet flying from Canada to India that killed more than 300 people. A Canadian Sikh was found guilty in 2003 for involvement in the bombing. A Canadian court acquitted two others.
Pannun pushed back, calling that interpretation of his video an “Indian narrative,” and saying he was calling for a Sikh boycott of Indian-owned businesses.
“The objective behind it is that I want the (Sikh) community to stop funding their own genocide,” he said. “I want the community not to spend a dime on Indian-owned businesses.”
Breaking up the Indian state
He’s also come under criticism over posters with the words “Kill India” and the names and photos of Indian officials that the placards claim were involved in Nijjar’s killing. One of the officials pictured was Sanjay Kumar Verma, India’s high commissioner, who was among the six Indian diplomats recently expelled from Canada.
Pannun said his goal is to break up the Indian state.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun stands for a portrait in New York City.
Jeenah Moon for NPR
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Jeenah Moon for NPR
“I say to kill Modi politics. We are in America. We say ‘kill Biden politics,’ we say ‘kill Trump politics,’” Pannun said. “’Kill India’ means balkanize India. India is not a human being. India is in a union of states. We want to balkanize India.”
Some of his posts on social media are about his late colleague and friend, Nijjar. His assassination, Pannun said, has left a hole.
“You feel the vacuum, but then you also get the strength and the courage: what Nijjar stood for, for what he gave his life, for what he has spent the last 15, 16 years with us,” he said.
But Pannun also said there’s no time to sit back and grieve. There is work to be done, a campaign to run, despite the risks.
“I would rather take a bullet in my head than stop the Khalistan referendum campaign,” he said.
Former president Bill Clinton is scheduled to give deposition Friday to a congressional committee investigating his links to Jeffrey Epstein, one day after Hillary Clinton testified before the committee and called the proceedings “partisan political theatre” and “an insult to the American people”.
During remarks before the House oversight committee, Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, insisted on Thursday that she had never met Epstein.
The former Democratic president, however, flew on Epstein’s private jet several times in the early 2000s but said he never visited his island.
Clinton, who engaged in an extramarital affair while president and has been accused of sexual misconduct by three women, also appears in a photo from the recently released files, in a hot tub with Epstein and a woman whose identity is redacted.
Clinton has denied the sexual misconduct claims and was not charged with any crimes. He also has not been accused of any wrongdoing connected to Epstein.
Epstein visited the White House at least 17 times during the early years of Clinton’s presidency, according to White House visitor records cited in news reports. Clinton said he cut ties with him around 2005, before the disgraced financier, who died from suicide in 2019, pleaded guilty to solicitation of a minor in Florida.
The House committee subpoenaed the Clintons in August. They initially refused to testify but agreed after Republicans threatened to hold them in contempt.
The Clintons asked for their depositions to be held publicly, with the former president stating that to do so behind closed doors would amount to a “kangaroo court”.
“Let’s stop the games + do this the right way: in a public hearing,” Clinton said on X earlier this month.
The committee’s chair, James Comer, did not grant their request, and the proceedings will be conducted behind closed doors with video to be released later.
On Thursday, Hillary Clinton’s proceedings were briefly halted after representative Lauren Boebert leaked an image of Clinton testifying.
During the full day deposition, Clinton said she had no information about Epstein and did not recall ever meeting him.
Before the deposition, Comer said it would be a long interview and that one with Bill Clinton would be “even longer”.
CASE 0:26-cv-00107-PJS-DLM
Doc. 12-1 Filed 02/26/26
Page 5 of 17
and to file a status update by 11:00 am on January 20. ECF No. 5. Respondents never provided a bond hearing and did not release Petitioner until January 21, ECF Nos. 10, 12, after failing to file an update, ECF No. 9. Further, Respondents released Petitioner subject to conditions despite the Court’s release order not providing for conditions. ECF Nos. 5, 12–13.
Abdi W. v. Trump, et al., Case No. 26-CV-00208 (KMM/SGE)
On January 21, 2026, the Court ordered Respondents, within 3 days, to either (a) complete Petitioner’s inspection and examination and file a notice confirming completion, or (b) release Petitioner immediately in Minnesota and confirm the date, time, and location of release. ECF No. 7. No notice was ever filed. The Court emailed counsel on January 27, 2026, at 10:39 am. No response was provided.
Adriana M.Y.M. v. David Easterwood, et al., Case No. 26-CV-213 (JWB/JFD)
On January 24, 2026, the Court ordered immediate release in Minnesota and ordered Respondents to confirm the time, date, and location of release, or anticipated release, within 48 hours. ECF No. 12. Respondent was not released until January 30, and Respondents never disclosed the time of release, instead describing it as “early this morning.” ECF No. 16.
Estefany J.S. v. Bondi, Case No. 26-CV-216 (JWB/SGE)
On January 13, 2026, at 10:59 am, the Court ordered Respondents to file a letter by 4:00 pm confirming Petitioner’s current location. ECF No. 8. After receiving no response, the Court ordered Respondents, at 5:11 pm, to immediately confirm Petitioner’s location and, by noon on January 14, file a memorandum explaining their failure to comply with the initial order. ECF No. 9. Respondents did not file the memorandum, requiring the Court to issue another order. ECF No. 12. On January 15, the Court ordered immediate release in Minnesota and required Respondents to confirm the time, date, and location of release within 48 hours. ECF No. 18. On January 20, having received no confirmation, the Court ordered Respondents to comply immediately. ECF No. 21. Respondents informed the Court that Petitioner was released in Minnesota on January 17, but did not specify the time. ECF No. 22.
5
James Hickman holds a photo montage of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson before a public visitation at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in Chicago on Thursday.
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Nam Y. Huh/AP
CHICAGO — A line of mourners streamed through a Chicago auditorium Thursday to pay final respects to the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. as cross-country memorial services began in the city the late civil rights leader called home.
The protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time presidential candidate will lie in repose for two days at the headquarters of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition before events in Washington, D.C., and South Carolina, where he was born.
Family members wiped away tears as the casket was brought into the stately brick building. Flowers lined the sidewalks where people waiting to enter watched a large screen playing video excerpts of Jackson’s notable speeches. Some raised their fists in solidarity.
The casket with the Rev. Jesse Jackson arrives before a public visitation at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in Chicago on Thursday.
Nam Y. Huh/AP
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Nam Y. Huh/AP
Inside, Jackson’s children, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Rev. Al Sharpton were among those who stood by the open casket to shake hands and hug those coming to view the body of Jackson, dressed in a suit and blue shirt and tie.
“The challenge for us is that we’ve got to make sure that all he lived for was not in vain,” Sharpton told reporters. “Dr. King’s dream and Jesse Jackson’s mission now falls on our shoulders. We’ve got to stand up and keep it going.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton speaks as Jesse Jackson Jr. listens after the public visitation for the Rev. Jesse Jackson at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in Chicago on Thursday.
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Nam Y. Huh/AP
Jackson died last week at age 84 after battling a rare neurological disorder that affected his mobility and ability to speak in his later years.
Remembrances have already poured in from around the globe, and several U.S. states, including Minnesota, Iowa and North Carolina, are flying flags at half-staff in his honor.
But perhaps nowhere has his death been felt as strongly as in the nation’s third-largest city, where Jackson lived for decades and raised his six children, including a son who is a congressman.
Bouquets have been left outside the family’s Tudor-style home on the city’s South Side for days. Public schools have offered condolences, and city trains have used digital screens to display Jackson’s portrait and his well-known mantra, “I am Somebody!”
People wait to enter the security checkpoint for the public visitation for the Rev. Jesse Jackson at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in Chicago on Thursday.
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Nam Y. Huh/AP
His causes, both in the United States and abroad, were countless: Advocating for the poor and underrepresented on issues including voting rights, job opportunities, education and health care. He scored diplomatic victories with world leaders, and through his Rainbow PUSH Coalition, he channeled cries for Black pride and self-determination into corporate boardrooms, pressuring executives to make America a more open and equitable society.
“We honor him, and his hard-earned legacy as a freedom fighter, philosopher, and faithful shepherd of his family and community here in Chicago,” the mayor said in a statement.
Next week, Jackson will lie in honor at the South Carolina Statehouse, followed by public services. According to Rainbow PUSH’s agenda, Gov. Henry McMaster is expected to deliver remarks; however, the governor’s office said Thursday that his participation wasn’t yet confirmed. Jackson spent his childhood and started his activism in South Carolina.
Details on services in Washington have not yet been made public. However, he will not lie in honor at the United States Capitol rotunda after a request for the commemoration was denied by the House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office.
The two weeks of events will wrap up next week with a large celebration of life gathering at a Chicago megachurch and finally, homegoing services at the headquarters of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
Family members said the services will be open to all.
“Our family is overwhelmed and overjoyed by the amazing amount of support being offered by common, ordinary people who our father’s life has come into contact with,” his eldest son, Jesse Jackson Jr., said before the services began. “This is a unique opportunity to lay down some of the political rhetoric and to lay down some of the division that deeply divides our country and to reflect upon a man who brought people together.”
The family of the Rev. Jesse Jackson arrives as Yusep Jackson wipes his eyes before public visitation at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in Chicago on Thursday.
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Nam Y. Huh/AP
The services included prayers from some of the city’s most well-known religious leaders, including Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich. Mourners of all ages — from toddlers in strollers to elderly people in wheelchairs — came to pay respects.
Video clips of his appearances at news conferences, the campaign trail and even “Sesame Street” also played inside the auditorium.
Claudette Redic, a retiree who lives in Chicago, said her family has respected Jackson, from backing his presidential ambitions to her son getting a scholarship from a program Jackson championed.
“We have generations of support,” she said. “I’m hoping we continue.”
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